No! I will not send nudes

Sorry. But I’m more than a body. I’m more than something for you to jack off to. I’m more than a joke, more than a meme.

For those that were not aware a “send nudes” sign was put up in a suite in the Quads a few days ago. There have been responses from other suites: “What’s your number?” and “Respect women.” Which have led to the original suite putting up an email address and justifying the sign by saying that they replaced the exclamation point with a question mark. That does not make the sign better, the message is still the same.

The sign “send nudes” is more than just a meme. The message says to whoever it is sent to that they are only wanted for their body, and that they are only seen for their body. The said person is brought down to their flesh, something they have no control over, and are told that it is because of this that they are desirable and only this. This is a lie. We are all more than our bodies. Some may prefer this method of communication. But for a college campus this is not appropriate.

As an RA I am constantly worried that everyone on campus feels safe. Seeing the sign at first I laughed, from my privilege of never having to deal with this. But then the message stayed there, and I started to think about what this meant to anyone who was less fortunate than I. It can be seen as a blatant sign of our patriarchal society, and the scary part is that (since this article has been written) the sign is still up.

1 Comment

The exclamation point was replaced with a question mark almost immediately due to conversations within the suite, not outside controversy. The message is not directed at anyone in particular and we were not expecting to get actual nudes; however, your assumption that the naked human body is inherently sexual is more harmful to our society than a joke among college students. From the email address, we received memes and other joking responses. If we had received nudes, they would have been consensual. How is that a bad thing? If a consenting adult feels they want to show their naked body, who are we to judge? Your statement about how we are all more than our bodies is correct: No one should feel shamed for their bodies. If people want to feel empowered or just have some fun then they should be able to. You saying that this is a “blatant sign of our patriarchal society” is ironic due to the fact that this sign was originally put up by a female and only three males have participated versus over ten women who were a part of it. Even though women are also able to contribute to the patriarchy, this sign does not sexualize or demean women. In fact, no gender was specified to begin with. These claims are made without any basis of prior information towards the responsible parties.